The present invention relates to a power train for an automotive vehicle, and more particularly relates to a power train for an automotive vehicle, which is transversely mounted and has good compactness, as well as providing advantages relating to weight distribution.
In the design of an automotive vehicle, it is generally desired to minimize the exterior dimensions of the body thereof, while maintaining the desired dimensions for the interior of the passenger compartment. This is done in order to minimize utilization of materials and manufacturing cost, and in order to minimize weight and frontal area which is closely related to wind resistance, with the objective of reducing fuel consumption, and also in order to facilitate parking, storage and general drivability. In other words, for a given overall length of the external dimensions of the car body, it is desired to maximize the dimensions of the interior of the passenger compartment, which concomitantly entails minimizing the dimensions of the engine compartment. Further, in modern vehicle body designs, it is becoming more and more important to decrease the height of the engine compartment of the vehicle, with the aim of improving the streamlining characteristics of the shape of the vehicle body by lowering and sloping the hood line.
For example, in a typical prior art type configuration of a power unit in a front engine front wheel drive automotive vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a FF car), as particularly shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings which is a side view thereof, it is per se known to keep the dimension in the longitudinal direction of the engine compartment low by arranging the engine E transversely to the vehicle body. Further, it is per se known to maximize the length of the passenger compartment of the vehicle, within the limitation of keeping the overall vehicle length constant, by further minimizing the length of the engine compartments by placing a differential device D incorporated in the power train to the rear of the engine E so that the engine E overhangs to the front of the center A of the front axle of the vehicle.
However, this construction is not entirely satisfactory, because such overhanging of the engine E to the front of the center A of the vehicle front axle limits the wheel base of the vehicle to be shorter than it could otherwise be. Further, the center of gravity of the engine is, with regard to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, in front of the front wheels, which tends to increase the moments of inertia of the vehicle about its yaw and pitch axes, and also deteriorates other dynamic properties of the vehicle such as its suspension characteristics.